There were good signs for a successful berry harvest at the beginning of the season. But then the frost came in late April, followed by strongly changing temperatures in July, which influenced the berry production.
Early June it looked good for strawberries, the current volume of the paper Früchte und Gemüse claims. But the high temperatures let strawberries ripen quickly, without growing bigger. The amount of fruit grew but the frost in April produced wobbly fruits. There were estimated losses of 30% compared to last year and due to the large domestic demand, import quotas had to be approved.
While strawberries were damaged by the weather conditions, bush berries seemingly made the best of it. Especially blackberries profited from high temperatures and mid July, yields were about one third higher than they were in 2016.
Although raspberries were ripe earlier than usual, the volumes followed the same growth curve as they did last year. According to estimations, raspberries are doing well this year.
To meet the high demand of consumers, the cultivation area for blueberries was raised by 11.8% in 2017. Harvest estimates are correspondingly high. In mid July the volumes were 2.6 times as high as they were last year.
The harvest of currants and gooseberries is expected to be 25% lower than it was in 2016. This is due to the frost damages and the reduction of cultivation area by 6%.
Source: lid.ch
